Growing Up...

Evan turned 2 years-old on Monday, August 24th. I'm trying to get a blog posted with pictures from last week. In the meantime, here is a video that Joel put together a couple months ago that I thought I would share...

Curious George

Evan is really picky at meal times these days. Its really frustrating to me that he wants his food cut a certain way, at a certain temperature, and in the right place on the plate. Sometimes he wants a spoon, sometimes a fork. Sometimes he wants a sippy cup, and sometimes he prefers a big-boy cup. Seriously....can you just eat your food and be thankful that I gave you some?

Last Sunday night we let Curious George sit at the table with him and he seemed to do a lot better eating his food. He would pretend that George took a bite and then he would take a bite. Here they are sharing their BLT...

Chach & Valla's Wedding

I was honored when Valla asked me to be a bridesmaid at her wedding this summer. It was actually on my Mom's birthday AND it was the day Chris & Renae brought their baby, Eric Mathew, into the world. I will have no excuses for forgetting August 15th!

Valla & Chach had a small ceremony at the North Central College Chapel and then dinner at Tango in downtown Naperville. After dinner, the bridal party and a few friends went to Bar Louie, just down the street from Tango. I witnessed Valla winning a bacon-eating contest on her wedding day. Hilarious.

The newlyweds...

Valla and I ...


My groomsman was Nic, Chach's brother. Ironically the groomsman I was paired with for Amanda's wedding was also named Nick.





Just Married...


Tango, where the tapas and sangria were delicious....

Getting ready to eat some bacon...


If you want to see the contest, someone has posted it on youtube. You can search for bacon eating bride!

It was a fun weekend and I'm looking forward to sharing many more memories with Valla and Chach. Love you guys!

Surprise!

My parents celebrated their 30th Wedding Anniversary on June 30th. Jake, Melissa, Jodi, David, Joel, and I pulled off a surprise party for them on Saturday, August 1st. Thank you to everyone that kept it a secret...you did a great job! Mom and Dad were down the alley at Dan & Deb's house for the afternoon at a birthday party. Jodi, David, Joel, and I just took turns going down there and making sure they were well entertained. When we had a crowd at our house we told them that we had a surprise for them and they had to wear blind folds to walk down the alley (otherwise they would see all the cars at our house!)


They were SO surprised when we took the blind folds off and there were about 60 of their friends and family members shouting, "Surprise! Happy 30th Anniversary!" I'm pretty sure mom cried.


Jodi took care of ordering the cake...


I caught dad visiting with his groomsmen...



David and Jake were busy giving Joel a hard time for not wearing a Cub's shirt...


Evan was excited to see Cameron for the day...

But most importantly I think Mom and Dad enjoyed having all their kids together for the afternoon...


We love you mom and dad and hope that you enjoyed your party and we wish you the best for the next 30 years!

The Last Week of July

Joel was able to come up and spend the last week of July with Evan and I. He was here for Amanda's wedding and then made Bellflower his "home base" while he worked in Indianapolis, Springfield, and his favorite spot: the back porch. Evan loved having his daddy to play with and the weather was perfect for playing outside...



My dad made a ramp for Evan's cars. He has spent many mornings sitting on the steps pushing cars down a piece of wood only to gather them up (or ask someone else to pick them up) and do it all over again....


Evan has been helping out with dinner time by shucking the corn with his Grandpa...

And one night after dinner Evan decided he wanted to play basketball. Well he couldn't play basketball without "basketball shoes." He went inside and came back out with my dad's tennis shoes on. It was hilarious! Then he wanted his Cubs hat that my mom gave him. He has become quite attached to that thing and gets really excited when he sees the Cubs on TV...which means practically every day at Grandma & Grandpa's house.

Evan continues to love books. He and I sat on the swing one day and read Goldilocks and the Three Bears about 14 times in a row. When Goldilocks breaks the chair in the story Evan always says she needs to "go to the grocery store and get a new one!"

On Friday, July 31st Mom, Dad, Evan, Joel, and I went to the McLean County Fair. Joel and I both grew up going to the fair but hadn't been to it since it had moved to a new location. It was a lot bigger than we had remembered it being!

Evan and Joel "drove" the combine...

We all shared a funnel cake and a lemonade shake-up....except we think they forgot the sugar in our shake-up so Joel had to go back and ask for a scoop of sugar...

Evan liked looking at the bunnies...

But I think my mom and dad enjoyed them even more...

At the end of the evening we went to the grandstand to listen to Chuck Wicks perform. He had a great crowd and put on a good show. I saw him last fall when he was on tour with Brad Paisley and only had one popular song....now he's playing at county fairs and drawing a crowd of his own.

Mom couldn't leave the fair without having icecream...and of course Evan thought he needed some too....

Amanda's Wedding: Part 2

Shouldn't all brides begin their wedding day as a pirate?

Well I guess only if your flower girl thinks she's a pirate...

Lily, the flower girl, and her mom (Laura), the maid of honor were a lot of fun to spend time with on Amanda's wedding day...

Laura laced Amanda up. I think this was the point where she got a little nervous...

She was a beautiful bride and her dad was so proud to walk her down the isle...

Geoff and his dad waited with anticipation....


And here I am standing up there to support my Amanda....

The ceremony was short but very meaningful...not too many tears. It was a beautiful day for pictures outside at the park and when they were all done, the wedding party boarded a boat and headed to the reception...


Geoff and Amanda looked SO happy getting off that boat and heading into the reception...


The reception at the boat club was filled with friends, family, food, and music. It was fun to get some of the LCC girls together again....too bad Kim wasn't able to be there.

Amanda and Geoff are going to make a wonderful couple! They look so happy together...

And this picture really shows their fun personalities...

Thank you Amanda for inviting me to be a part of your wedding day. I can't wait to visit Colorado and spend some time with you and Geoff! Congrats:)

Amanda's Wedding: Part 1

Last weekend was Amanda's wedding. Joel flew up on Friday morning so that he could go to the rehearsal and wedding with me. We finally got to meet Geoff for the first time! He seems perfect for Amanda and I'm SO happy that she has found the love of her life!

The very first picture taken at rehearsal was Lily (flower girl) running to Amanda for a hug...

It was fun to reconnect with Julia, another friend from college that was in the wedding...

I'm not sure if Geoff and Amanda were running away from the bridal party or running to the Beef House for dinner...